Every Woman
by ObsessedRomantic
Summary: Ryan thinks about Taylor. It's short and I give away the plot in the story so....... Still worth a read, I hope.


**E V E R Y W O M A N **

**A/N: **Hoping to jump-start my muse back into writing mode. Code Blue!

**Summary: **Ryan thinks about Taylor. I give enough of it away in the story, so go ahead and read.

**Disclaimer: **The O.C. is owned by Fox (?) and 'Every Woman' is owned by Garth Brooks and his record label. My bad if I got the lyrics wrong. Any missing or out of place is artistic license, of course.

--xxx—

_She's sun and rain, she's fire and ice. A little crazy, but it's nice._

A touch eccentric. Got to give it up to Sandy – that had to be the biggest understatement that I'd ever heard. She dressed up in a groundhog costume to stalk me, for crying out loud! That was more than a 'touch' eccentric. That was borderline certifiable.

The best thing about it, though?

It wasn't the craziest thing that she'd ever done.

Today was.

…_. when she gets mad, you best leave her alone. _

'_Cause she'll rage just like a river……. _

The one woman Summer was afraid of.

I was sworn to secrecy on that, though.

She was right, too. Taylor is major-league scary. Not so much physically: soaking wet, I doubted she weighed more than 90 pounds. No, it's just how …..intense she gets. Like nothing and no one will stop her from achieving her goal; and you'd better pray (to who, I wondered, because I wouldn't put it past her to talk the Almighty around, if need be) she doesn't see you as an obstacle.

I'd said it myself, once.

The woman is a bulldozer.

Case in point – where I was standing, what I was wearing, and everything else today entailed.

_She's so New York and then L.A. And every town along the way. _

…_. she's every place that I've never been. _

I didn't want to go anywhere, not really. Seth, in his usual over-the-top attempt to help; had made a long list (or five) of suggestions, sub-divided by category. Exotic, touristy, a real bargain; etcetera etcetera. Cabo was right out, of course, as was Vegas; but he couldn't understand why, in the end; I didn't really care. The one thing I'd wanted all my life was somewhere I felt comfortable, someplace that felt right to me, a place I could call home.

Funny thing was, I'd found it with a woman that was more exotic than any city on Earth. Any place I wanted to visit, any destination I thought of; I could match it to some aspect of her character. Some quirk of her behavior.

Why would I ever need to travel when I had Taylor?

After today, I'd literally have the world.

_She's making love on rainy nights. She's a stroll thru Christmas lights. _

_And she's everything I want to do again. _

Looking back on my relationship with Taylor, I wouldn't change a single thing. Okay, so maybe the events of the months previous to our getting together; but nothing else. I'd keep it all.

Her attempt to trick me into signing that adultery thing. The uncomfortable conversation in the Yacht Club that I knew, even at the time; wasn't about soccer. That first kiss and the lawyer seeing what it took me several more months to even acknowledge. Sleep therapy. That red dress! Having fun. Shared comas. New Year's gifts and skanky alien chicks. Made-up tell-all books and manipulative French (son of a bitching pendejo) ex-husbands. Misunderstandings and embarrassments and passion and comfort and just…..

Everything.

Everything, big and small, good and bad; I would keep.

Because everything, big and small, good and bad; is what got us to today.

_It needs no explanation. _

'_Cause it all makes perfect sense._

I'd once asked Kirsten how she'd known that Sandy was the one, that she was in love. Real love, the kind that lasted forever. The kind that made her forgive her husband for dragging home a juvenile felon to complicate the shit out of their lives. The kind of love everyone except me seemed to understand instinctively. Give the lady credit; she'd tried really hard to explain. Some of it had even been comprehensible. Nice to know I wasn't the only one in the family who had a hard time putting things into words.

Today, though; I finally had the answers.

Today, it was all crystal clear.

_She's anything but typical. She's so unpredictable._

Taylor sure is one of a kind. The kind of woman who would always surprise you; but never in a way that you didn't like. The kind of woman you couldn't predict on the small stuff; but could rely on with absolute, unshakeable certainty for the big stuff. And the huge stuff?

Let's just say that, as a guy who used to bare-knuckle brawl with big, bald bikers in steel cages; I wouldn't want to be the huge stuff.

Especially today.

.

_Oh, but even at her worst, she ain't that bad. _

_She's as real as real can be; and she's every fantasy._

I look in the mirror and have to wonder who I am. The kid from Chino wouldn't stick with a girl who annoys and confuses me as much as she does sometimes. Hell, the Ryan I was in Newport would've dumped her long before now. College Ryan seemed to change with every semester and vacation – so who knows what that idiot would do with a girl like Taylor?

But even when she's doing something that makes me want to strangle her and call Trey to give me ideas on how to hide the body………

Even then, I still want her.

Want her in my bed, yeah (hell, yeah); always want that. But wanting her when she's irritating the fuck out of me is more like ……. Wanting to hold her. Wanting to take her in my arms and remind her that she doesn't have to put on an act with me. She doesn't have to wear a mask. With me, she can be herself.

With her, I can be myself.

After today, I think we'll both have a clearer idea of who those people are.

_She's every lover that I've ever had. _

_She's every lover that I've never had._

Comparison.

Any girl with half a brain knows that her guy is going to compare her to previous girlfriends or lovers. The reverse is also true. However, when a guy says he doesn't want to know how he weighed in on the comparisons – we really don't want to know.

Girls do.

Which is how I saw right through Kaitlyn's question about how Taylor compared to my ex's. My ex-girlfriends, anyway. We'd already discussed ex-lovers. In detail. With demonstrations that made me squirm or smirk; depending.

Knowing how insecure my girl really was under that confident façade (and she says I don't know French – ha!); I answered truthfully.

She's better.

I loved Theresa because she was real and grounded and practical and a take-no-nonsense kind of capable girl I could be comfortable with and not have to worry about her when I wasn't there to watch over her.

Yeah, that's Taylor; only more so.

I loved Marissa because she saw me (or seemed to) and wanted me and made me feel alive and was so beautiful I couldn't think straight and seemed to need me so much that I felt invincible.

That, too; only without the melodrama and desperate edge that made everything feel……off.

I loved Lindsey because she was normal (-ish) and intelligent and understood me a lot better than anyone who wasn't a Cohen (only she was, kinda; and didn't that still make me flinch) and could explain things and forgave me for being a jerk.

And now I was with a girl who could almost read my mind and, unfortunately; had a lot more to forgive me for than just being a jerk.

I loved Sadie because I didn't want to be alone and the sex was good and she seemed to know what she was doing and did I mention the sex was good?

Thing is, Taylor really does know what she's doing. Okay, usually what she's doing is totally insane and based on some weird Taylor-logic; but she knows it's nuts, and that makes it more endearing than psychotic.

And the sex is fantastic.

As Kaitlyn put it (and I'm forgetting that even as I think it): 'she's all that'.

Have to agree. She is most definitely 'all that'.

All that they were and everything they weren't.

Which is why, today; I'm trying to snap myself out of the fugue I slipped into when I saw her walking towards me (in that white dress, looking like nothing so much as an angel) and hoping I don't miss my cue.

''Dearly beloved, ……..''

---xxx---

**A/N2:** Did I give it away? I think I gave it away. Still fun to write, though!


End file.
